Paywall Dodgers

AI 3D generation

Turn a photo or a prompt into a 3D mesh without Meshy, Tripo, or Rodin.

Badge key

Fully free / open source. A standard open-source license.
Free tier. The product has a free plan.
Free app, paid API. The app is free to install. Making something still costs money.
Unofficial: use at your own risk. Someone else built this. It can break. Back up your files.
Early. Not a finished replacement.
Not yet tested by us. Listed from the project page. Not a hands-on test.
Tested by us. We ran it on our own machine. The card has the result.

Mesh generation

Local models for the same job as Meshy, Tripo, and Hyper3D (Rodin).

What it costs

Meshy
- Free $0/month
- Pro $20/month
- Premium $40/month
- Ultra $100/month
List prices checked October 16, 2026, Pacific time. Official pricing page.
Tripo
- Free $0/month
- Pro $20/month
- Max $90/month
- Team $110 per seat/month, or $55 per seat/month billed annually
List prices checked October 16, 2026, Pacific time. Official pricing page.
Hyper3D (Rodin)
- Free $0/month
- Creator $30/month, or $24/month if you pay $288 up front for the year
- Business $120/month, or $96/month if you pay $1,152 up front for the year
List prices checked October 16, 2026, Pacific time. Official pricing page.

Free alternatives that best fit

Best overall free pick: TRELLIS Lighter model: TripoSR

TRELLIS

Fully free / open source
Not yet tested by us

TRELLIS is Microsoft's open 3D model, the best overall free pick for generating a mesh on your own machine. TRELLIS.2 is the newer line from the same group. Both are research projects.

Replaces: Meshy, Tripo, and Hyper3D (Rodin)
Price: Free
License: MITThe repository license names Microsoft.
Hardware: TRELLIS needs 16 GB of VRAM or more. TRELLIS.2 needs 24 GB or more.
Maintained: Updated June 26, 2026.TRELLIS.2, the newer repository, moved on July 10, 2026.

Project site Repository Notes

TripoSR

Fully free / open source
Not yet tested by us

TripoSR is a smaller image-to-3D research model from VAST AI Research, a lighter start than the bigger mesh models. You run it locally. The name overlaps Tripo the company, and this repository is the research code. The last update was June 2026.

Replaces: Meshy, Tripo, and Hyper3D (Rodin)
Price: Free
License: MIT
Hardware: About 6 GB of VRAM.
Maintained: Updated June 4, 2026.

Repository

Hunyuan3D-2.1

Not yet tested by us

Hunyuan3D-2.1 is Tencent's local 3D model, for people who want a mesh from that project. You run it yourself. The license does not apply in the EU, the UK, or South Korea. A company with more than 1 million monthly users needs a separate license, and the outputs cannot be used to improve other models. The repository has been quiet since October 2025.

Replaces: Meshy, Tripo, and Hyper3D (Rodin)
Price: Free
License: Tencent Hunyuan 3D 2.1 community licenseIt does not apply in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or South Korea. Companies with more than 1 million monthly users need a license from Tencent. Outputs cannot be used to improve other models.
Hardware: 10 GB of VRAM for shape only, 21 GB for texture, and 29 GB for both.
Maintained: Last update October 17, 2025. Quiet for the six months before October 16, 2026.

Repository